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Caitlin C. Rosenthal

Assistant Professor

I am a historian of 18th and 19th century U.S. history. My research focuses on the development of management practices, especially those based on data analysis. Methodolotically, I seek to blend qualitative and quantitative methods and to combine insights from business history, economic history, and labor history.

My first book, Accounting for Slavery: Masters and Management, will be published by Harvard University Press in 2018. The book explores the development of business practices on slave plantations and uses this history to understand the relationship between violence and innovation.

Before coming to Berkeley, I was the Newcomen Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard Business School, and before that I worked as a consultant with McKinsey & Company. My work is motivated by the hope that more complete histories of management can help us to explore deep political and ethical questions, many of which continue to face modern businesspeople.

My undergraduate teaching focuses on the history of capitalism and of data practices. In 2016, my course on "The History of American Capitalism," which blends methods from economic, business, and labor history, was awarded the American Cultures Innovation in Teaching Prize. In 2018, I will offer a new course called "Calculating Americans: Big Histories of Small Data." The class explores the long and messy history of quantification in the US, considering everything from the U.S. Census to social surveys, insurance policies, medical records, and sports. I also advise graduate students on a variety of topics related to data and economy.

Education

PhD, Harvard University, History of American Civilization

AM, Harvard University, History

BA, Rice University, Political Science, summa cum laude

Selected Fellowships & Awards

American Cultures Innovation in Teaching Prize, 2016

Townsend Center for the Humanities Fellowship, 2016–2017

Stanford Humanities Center Fellowship, 2016–2017 (declined)

Krooss Dissertation Prize in Business History, 2013

Finalist for the Allan Nevins Prize in American Economic History, 2013

Finalist for the SHEAR Dissertation Prize, 2013

Harvard-Newcomen Fellow in Business History, Harvard Business School, 2012–2013

Ira Unschuld Fellowship at the John Carter Brown Library, 2012

Thomas Cochran Fellowship in Business and Economic History, 2010–2011

American Antiquarian Society Botein Residential Research Fellowship in Book History, 2010